FLORENCE, Ariz. -- Robert Comer died Tuesday with a steady gaze and a defiant smile on his face, the first person to be executed in Arizona since November 2000.

He was strapped to a gurney and covered up to his neck with a sheet.

There was no sight of the catheter into his groin that made the lethal injection possible, no sight of the executioners on the other side of a wall.

But Comer was smiling; he had petitioned the federal courts to stop his appeals and hasten his own execution. He was in control of his destiny.

Comer brought a picture of his daughter with him to the death chamber and used his last words to say, "Go, Raiders."

Then, the chemicals coursed through his veins - first Sodium Pentathol to render him unconscious, then pancuronium bromide to stop his breathing and paralyze him, then potassium chloride to stop his heart - and he held that smile until he slipped away.